Event #7 – The October Unemployment Report

Like the 3rd Quarter GDP Report, this event is also getting overlooked by both the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction and the final weekend of campaigning when both candidates prefer to make their closing statements versus commenting on a number to the tenth of a percentage. This event would have been bigger absent Sandy, but it’s relegated to minor status.

President Obama avoided a bigger story when the October unemployment number of 7.9% managed to stay just below 8%, which was a big danger when last month’s unemployment surprisingly dropped to 7.8%. That 7.8% number was the unemployment rate when Obama took office so the slightly higher 7.9% allowed Mitt Romney to say that “unemployment is now higher than the day he took office.”

The number hardly affected the campaigns since its release. Let’s call it a slight win for Romney on this one.